Thursday, 23 February 2017

Warum ist es am Rhein so schön?

"Warum ist es am Rhein so schön?", literally "Why is it so beautiful by the Rhine?" is a German folk song praising the beauty of the Rhine, Germany's longest river. I've done what Kay (Georgia Girl with an English Heart) often does on her blog and did a bit of research about the song. One Adolf von Bergsattel wrote both the music and the lyrics. He was possibly helped with the latter by Franz Suppan, and the website I found this information at dates the song as "before 1928".That's about all I could find out, except for a differing claim on youtube saying that the music was written by someone else.Today's post is not really about music, though. It is about the Rhine's beauty and how impressive this majestic stream can be even on a somewhat dull winter's day.

When I was 5 years old, my parents, my sister and I lived in a small village close to the river. We often drove across to France, both for groceries shopping (some things were considerably cheaper there than on our side of the water) and for holidays. Going for walks with our parents where the river was still more or less in its natural state (we call these parts the "Old Rhine") was always something of an adventure. About a year later, we moved back to Ludwigsburg, almost 100 km away, too far for a quick stroll along the river. My parents kept going back to visit the friends they had made during our short stint at the village, and the love for that particular landscape has stuck with us.O.K.'s home (about 70 km south of the village we used to live at in the early 1970s) is not all that far from the Rhine. And yet it took almost a year of regular visits at his place before we went to the river for the first time!At the end of January, we were invited to join a group of friends and acquaintances for a winter BBQ in the woods. The woodland borders the Rhine, and while the barbeque was still in full swing, we snuck away on a little walk.Here are the pictures O.K. took with his mobile phone. To enlarge them, simply click on them.Have a look, and you'll be able to answer the question in the song title:

22 comments:

It was good fun, Jennifer, and not too cold that day. Two dogs running around like excited kids, with all the scents to pick up from the woods, and the humans putting bacon and sausages on the grill, contributed to the party :-)

Beautiful! I never walked much, or at all, really, in this area. In the spring of 1974 I took a boat up to Cologne where Paul was at a conference and then we drove into Holland during tulip time. Now I'm thinking of Die Lorelei and remembering when they pointed out the cliff there.

That area is quite far away from where we used to live, and even further from O.K.'s region. There aren't any such impressive high rocks and cliffs along this part of the river, but I've been through that region on the train to Cologne many times. It really is very beautiful!

Gorgeous! You don't have to sell me on the Rhine, I have always wanted to see it.Richard took a cruise down the Rhine, so you know I have wanted to do this too since he has mentioned it off and on our entire married life! LOL.I did a bit of research on the song, and like you, I found differing stories of who wrote it. Perhaps someone might know a bit more and let us know? Hope so!Thanks for the mention, songwriters are fascinating to me, but you knew that already! :-)

I particularly like the last two photos, too!Yes, I was thinking of you when I was trying to find out more about the songwriter :-)Well, you and Richard could take a Rhine cruise for a wedding anniversary or something, and I would make sure to meet up with you at some point!

Such beautiful photos, and they make me feel that old nostalgia for places I've lived. As a child I lived in Baden-Baden and picnics down to the Rhine were a treat. The Great Dane and I lived in North Rhineland Westphalia, and a drive down to the Rhine, especially in the fall to taste the wine was always a treat. In the late 80's we lived within cycling distance from the River and I loved to do my weekly shopping on the outskirts of Strasbourg. I miss the landscape in the fall, especially, but spring was lovely too.

It is beautiful all year round, really!From O.K.'s village, we can see Strasbourg minster - it is only about 25 km away, and we were cycling in that direction one Sunday last summer. I have never been much of a wine person, but with my frequent visits of this area, I have begun to develop a taste for it - especially when we combine it with cheese and nuts :-)

The last two photos are stunning. Clearly OK is more than okay when it comes to snapping pictures of The Rhine. I bet the other barbecue people were saying, "Where the hell have Meike and OK gone? Their sausages are ready!"

We only went walking after we'd had our bacon and sausages :-)When we returned, only one of the dogs seemed to have missed us. She was a 5 1/2 months old collie, super-fluffy and very playful, by the name of Joy.Yes, O.K. is MUCH more than okay in so many respects!!!

Stunning, Meike. I've visited Germany, but never seen the Rhine; looks amazing from your pictures, and others I have seen. One of the world's great waterways, of course. I'm dead proud that I recognised the song title, even if I don't know the song!

Way back in 1983 when I travelled to Germany by train, I changed trains in Koblenz and had a few hours there and that's the closest I got to the Rhine. (I don't remember if the railway also runs so close to the river between Koblenz and Köln so that I might also have seen it from the train. I did not stop at Köln, only passed on the train.) I saw a lot more of the rivers Lahn and Mosel though (the places where I stayed were Obernhof an der Lahn, and then Trier an der Mosel). It was late August/early September, and warm and sunny and beautiful.

I've never been to Koblenz and have not seen either the Lahn or the Mosel, as far as I know, but the Rhine is certainly very visible from the train when travelling towards Köln coming from the south, as I have done many many times.Trier sounds a fascinating place with many historic sites, but so far, I've not managed a trip there.

Over the years that we visited Germany we saw quite a lot of the Rhine but, if I'm honest, I recall relatively little. I think that I remember it at Mannheim before we drove up the Neckar Valley to Heidelberg. The Rhine must be one of the best known rivers in Europe: if not the best known. They are beautifully atmospheric photos.